Nov. 27, 2001
Knoxville, TN – Despite the great offensive effort by the Gamecocks, South Carolina was unable to defeat Arkansas in a tough four game match in the semifinals of the SEC Volleyball Tournament in Knoxville, TN. The Gamecocks will next face the Tar Heels of North Carolina on November 24, 2001 at 2:00 p.m. at the Volleyball Competition Facility in Columbia, SC.
The Arkansas Lady Razorbacks will now face the Florida Gators in the tournament final on Sunday, November 18th at 1:00 p.m. Game Scores were 30-28, 28-30, 28-30, 24-30.
Nadia Sefferovich led the Gamecocks with 16 kills. Cally Plummer notched 14 kills, Sam Alban had 13 kills, Nia Mackie had 12 kills, and Yajaira Cadet had 11 kills for Carolina. Megan Hosp had a season high 66 assists.
“Arkansas played well,” said Carolina Head Coach Kim Christopher. “They blocked us well, especially our left side. In order for us to beat a team like that, we have to have production from everyone in all positions and I didn’t feel like that was the case today. I thought Nia Mackie and Sam Alban played very well, but we just weren’t able to produce on the left side and that hurt us. The key was to get effective serves and we didn’t do that. Another key was to pass well and we didn’t do that as well as we should have.”
In game one, Arkansas jumped out to a quick 8-4 lead. Carolina then roared back, going on a 10-2 run that was capped off by a Nadia Sefferovich kill. Arkansas then came back to tie the game at 16, but Carolina jumped out ahead of the Lady Razorbacks to take a 20-18 lead. Arkansas tied the game at 23, but Carolina went on a quick run to take a 25-23 lead, capped off by a Sefferovich kill. Arkansas tied the game and the teams exchanged point for point until Sam Alban notched a kill followed by a Sefferovich kill that sealed the game for the Gamecocks, 30-28.
In game two, Arkansas jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead before the Gamecocks came back to tie the game at six. The teams exchanged point for point for most of the match until Carolina went on a rally, capped off by a Sam Alban kill, that put Carolina on top 24-19. Arkansas roared back to tie the game at 26, and then took a 28-26 lead. Carolina scored another two points off of a Yajaira Cadet kill and Arkansas hitting error, but that was all they could do as Arkansas took game two, 28-30.
In game three, Arkansas once again jumped out to an early lead, this time going up 8-5 before Carolina came back to pull within two, 7-9, on a rally that was capped off by a Megan Hosp kill. Arkansas went up again 12-16, but Carolina once again staged a comeback to tie the game at 18. The Lady Razorbacks jumped ahead once again, taking a 22-26 lead, but Carolina would not go away as they once again got back into the game off of a block assist by Alban and Plummer, making the score 25-26. Arkansas took a time out and came out firing as they scored three quick points to take the lead, but Carolina came back to make the score 28-29 off of a Alban kill. However, Arkansas took the game off of a Plummer service error, the final score being 28-30.
In game four, both teams battled back and forth, exchanging point for point as the teams fought to a tie at 10. Arkansas then jumped out to a 14-12 lead before Carolina tied the game off of a rally that was topped off by a Cadet kill. Arkansas took the lead 19-14 before the Gamecocks pulled within three off of a rally that was capped off by a Cadet ace. Arkansas regrouped and came out firing as they took a 26-19 lead. Carolina was able to rack up few more points, but were unable to make the comeback as Arkansas won game four 30-24, and the match 3-1.
